you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. braces for a confirmation battle is a bomb a pick so-called assassination john brennan and the supposed maverick pacifist chuck hagel the top security jobs. wilting under welfare one in three tax raised in the united kingdom a pumped into hand with the burden weighing heavier and heavier on working brits to take a close look at that. north korea lifts its fire wall for the visit of head of internet giant google amid reports the secretive states inviting german economists now to help it open up for foreign investment. the fifth straight night of rioting in

belfast flags of the social and political divide in northern ireland as police shoes non-lethal force on loyalists angered by those restrictions and displaying the union flag. over a good morning to you if you just joined us here at the new center just after midnight moscow time now first a pacifist accused of being anti israeli in charge of the military and an apparent supporter of harsh interrogation methods in charge of intelligence they president obama's picks to run the pentagon and the cia a washington correspondent got a teacher can profiles the nominees. by appointing chuck hagel as defense secretary president obama is arguably trying to change the perception that he has embraced bush administration national security policies because after four years of

militaristic foreign policy that's his people see it chuck hagel former senator from nebraska vietnam war veteran as being one of the very very few u.s. politicians who opposed u.s. military expansion and who dared to question and dissent from washington orthodoxies on foreign policy one of them has to do with israel he's there to publicly point out that the u.s. and israel are separate countries and american interests should trump israeli interests when they conflict and that's a subversive thing to say here in washington could be a career killer yet a catered for direct negotiations with hamas he condemned the power of the pro israel lobby in washington here's one of his statements to that effect the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i have always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of israel i just don't think it's smart for israel needless to say his nomination for the position of defense secretary has incurred a slew of objections for the past three weeks different interest groups have been

running attack ads on t.v. saying things like he's soft on iraq and he's a bad choice for the job hey go on like the vast majority of us politicians who keep repeating the all options are on the table mantra has allowed himself to say outright that attacking iran is a stupid idea is nomination is seen as a bold move on president obama's part and it's an important decision image wise for the president as hinted at possible change in foreign policy but many fear that charge could deliver that change in full song and more than in substance because there's only so much one person can do in washington speaking of the other person along with chuck hagel president obama nominated his counterterrorism adviser john brennan as the next director of the cia john brennan has been in charge of some of obama's most controversial policies including the targeted assassinations program one where the even. determines who will be marked for execution without any due process oversight or transparency is the man who's been in charge of president

obama's kill list last year john brennan claimed that the u.s. drone program caused no civilian deaths in pakistan over the prior year which was an outright lie by so many accounts add to that the fact that as a bush era cia official mr brennan had indorsed torture and rendition and also was a vocal advocate bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program and we can see why he is the most fit for the job as the head of the central intelligence agency which over the years has evolved into a paramilitary force the logic some see behind nominating hago and brennan for these top national security positions is that when accused of being hawkish the president can say there's my defense secretary low kokesh to you if we can as the being soft he can point out his new cia director who can be accused of anything but being soft. let's talk to paul craig roberts former assistant secretary of treasury for more on the president's nominees good morning thanks for joining us. and we

start with the president's choice for head of the cia john brennan is a controversial figure is highly divisive among allies of the us like pakistan yemen too is a deliberate move do you think by the president moves that i guess is going to antagonize is that about isn't it. i think. what you see. is the movement. away from. agency it toward being your police agency and the military force. the cia that i knew this most of the i gather up intelligence was largely academic scholars trying to figure out what other trenches were doing that and they had a few spies who had a ground in some locations and now it's in gauge the military activities. that. i don't know of any law allowed this transition is just something that's happening under the aegis not the executive branch because there when you have

a intelligent agency but the military pulls in at least four so we're a lot cliques force. and it's involved in activities that are clearly illegal the united states or washington well tax the populations of country decide which it is not at war by sending in drones to kill people. at the legality of this is unknown. but it's defended he said it's legal that it's moral and yet we don't really know who these people are that they're killing so what do you think is going to happen what do you think that the policy is going to be in future the policy coast of america towards the middle east in the near future and. well it will continue to be aggressive in the ground for hittin of me. they hope to leave in place the puppets of people who at least can be bought. but what is happening here is. the. war on terror is becoming more and more directed at the

american population it's the american population that's being spied on around the clock. we now have drones flying here domestically even local police forces getting drones. it's it's a complete different from conducting war against alleged terrorists overseas all of this is coming home i hear the spying the drones and the unaccountability of these growing police agencies so it's hard to say what will be the result but clearly there's not going to be accountability it's interesting you mention the drones that of course one of john brennan's pet projects. yes that's one of his past projects and also he was responsible for targeting people drones who are not in designated.

ses last aligned he a second it might come back pulled the trigger of its kevin over here moscow if you can still a deal we've got to live by actually good stuff or just broke up for a second chuck hagel let's talk about it now if we can it is the president's nomination to head up defense it looks like it's going to be a fight to get him confirmed why many republicans so against a member of their own party than. because he defended obama and he supported obama's election reelection so they're they're very partisan and they don't forgive him for that i think also you're publicans you're more committed to these wars than hager lives. and you know there are a few intelligent people left not many of them in the government who understand

these wars are really not in anyone's interests. and they're trying to. prevent the spread of these wars. into iran. or further into russia or china what about internally i mean both nominations come a highly divisive issues like israel like iran from radically different points of view but are we going to see a lot of conflict internally at the heart of the u.s. security establishment if they're in if they're at a point was a confirmed. no i don't think so i think that. brennan is moving. to a more powerful position which the cia will like and i think. is probably trying to put the brakes as warriors the rate at which washington experience it was a war in iraq you can very easily become overextended and defeated so i don't

think there will be in months but a lot. of. the real question is what is this war on terror who is it a guest and when john brennan says he will do everything necessary to make americans safer but who threatens us there are no terrorists acts united states except for the ones we're going to by the f.b.i. that's a very good question poli or certainly not a first brought but very big question up on this channel but thanks to time we really appreciate it paul craig roberts former assistant secretary of the treasury thank you thing antti. social networking in the gulf can take you from posting to prison we talk about that so you know the kuwaiti court would like to his behind bars for two years for treating against the joining of a regional countries and how to deal with unrest as we reported just a few. one

in every three pounds in taxes raised in britain is now being spent on welfare the numbers put together by a government department that paid a grim picture for a coalition prodding it saw for reining in runaway bills earlier studies or smith to explain more about what's being done they are trying to bring this this wildly out of control welfare bill under control and what they're proposing is a one percent cap on the rise in benefits traditionally in this country benefits have risen in line with inflation inflation of course always much less much more than one percent so they're proposing a cap ministers say that the cap is needed because the state handouts have been rising twice as fast as wages during this time in the last five years our benefits of risen by twenty percent whilst wages have risen by just twelve percent think that this proposal is not going away that it's all about this time it's what we've seen in recent weeks this this strivers versus skivers thing where the government

says it wants to support people who are going out to work trying hard to make money versus the people who are staying in bed all day and they say it's fair because public sector pay under a seris the measures is being cut and private sector pay is rising below the level of inflation so why should people who are on benefits get more money and the stories go all about having to support these people and the stamp out its benefits culture and make it more profitable for people to be working them for people to be sitting at home on benefits but again not everyone agrees so where is all the money go in short it's not all. well it's not and that's the key thing obviously a lot of it jobseekers allowance employment and support allowance that does go to people who are out of work but a lot of it goes to in fact two thirds of it goes to lower paid workers to people who are strivers these various drivers that we've been talking about essential workers nurses rubbish collectors people without whom the country would come down to its knees and that's what labor's talking about working tax credits child

benefit those kinds of things and in fact a charity the children's society has come out and said that if you are single or single primary school teacher or a nurse with two children you're going to be losing four hundred twenty four pounds per year by two thousand and fifteen under these new measures so certainly very controversial it says we're not all in it together in fact what we are what we governments proposing to do according to labor is hit households towards the bottom of this is the economic scale much harder than they hit households further up and i mean look at that headline again one in every three pounds in taxes going to welfare what is the average brit figure for that i suppose it depends which side of the firms you're on whether you're getting some of that welfare or giving it away. it does and i think i think that the average person in the street is very keen to stamp out these skydivers as the government sort of initially called them but now is backing away from that people who are staying at home with the curtains drawn in bed while ordinary people while the strivers go out to work but the fact is these

measures according to labor would hit those poor people harder more children in poverty they say the landlord association says it could contribute to more homelessness and it'll hit women particularly hard because they're the people who child tax credits go to for example and of course people struggling to pay for rising inflation rising fuel prices rising food prices and to put food on the table and then on the other side of the coin we've got a tax cut for the rich that will be introduced in april less anything happens if you over one hundred fifty thousand pounds a year after april you'll be paying five percent less tops and then you pay fifty percent it'll be forty five percent if you're earning a million pounds that's going to save you forty thousand pounds per year and people are up in arms about. so sliding down a slippery slope into the economic abyss of the eurozone on the high that with money it's again the worst effect of the moment later in the program.

north korea known for its inclusiveness and tight internet controls is playing host to a high profile visit from the u.s. one of the guest speaking ahead of online giant google the trip while promoted as a private humanitarian one is putting speculation by the company's plans to expand into the secretive state frowns upon the visit calling for sanctions on recent rocket launch mean time they've also been reports that north korean authorities are hiring german economy to help open up the country for foreign investment as well to join fair face from the washington d.c. policy studies the outlines of what north korea has to offer investors. but u.s. officials care because they're trying to tighten the screws on the sanction regime against north korea but to be honest there aren't a lot of sanctions they can levy against north korea at this point where the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world so what they're looking for basically is more a kind of atmosphere of condemnation it's been for

a trip like this to go forward is to basically go against this overall atmosphere north korea positions itself as a leader in information technology i mean people may find that amusing but that's the case north korea's computer programmers are top notch they their animators are top notch they see themselves as as taking information technology as a vehicle into the twenty first century and so having someone like google google's eric schmidt come for a visit is extraordinarily important for this. kind of success of north korea it's got trained workforce highly educated and no trade unions i mean that's no trade unions are going to cause any strikes and that's a big plus for outside investors another thing is raw materials. with korea as a normal amount of mineral wealth and at the moment china has pretty much locked up access to that the north korea i think is interested in getting

a couple more bids on that maybe getting some more money there and then of course location north korea is in the middle of one of the top economic zones in the world so if you're going to open up a business in northeast asia why not think of north korea john feffer with me a bit earlier on the deep trouble to keep the mid of on the resurgence of kurdish militants as we report after the break on it's the crisis in neighboring syria that's feeding the separatist aspirations now. choose your language. call if we can we know if you're going to. choose to use the consensus you. choose to get to. choose the stories that impact your life choose the access to.

the news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. thank. you welcome back belfast has seen six straight nights of rioting with police far

and plastic bullets and water cannons and hundreds of loyalist protesters still fire bombs and bricks at security forces injuring three in ongoing street protests over flying the british flag of city hall for belfast it's normally long joins me live now me very good evening to thank goodness and your party was brothers decision first of all was that you even received a death threat over this why did you not see the level of upset that this would cause well i don't think that it's a matter for saying the level of upset clearly we understood that people would find that a very sensitive an emotive as she issues of identity and a divided society are incredibly potent so we did recognize that there was a problem but the flying of the union flag every day was something which we were advised by the equality commission my colleagues he said on the kinds of invite were advised by the equality commission of my finger legal counsel that was a legal witness and the case of the kind so who are a member of staff to take a great its case against the kinds of her discrimination that advice has to be taken very seriously national some the kinds of want to live not to fly at all unionist wanted to fly every day what my colleagues in the consul did was propose i

suppose a compromise proposal that would allow the fly to fly in line with government buildings up and i'm whitehall here in london to fly in line with many many consulates across britain so what we try to do is find a resolution to what has been an ongoing and very difficult problem and i think that the fact that that was a democratically taken decision and lined with the legal advice it should not result in violence nor should we allow sure on the budget but how is it hard if not awful isn't it. well i don't believe it has backfired i think the problem is that there was political orchestration certainly in the initial stages of this particular on rest to try for example to use very emotive and inflammatory language around the position that my party was going to take enough of repping die in the flight when in fact we were opposing a post from nationalist to take the flag died entirely there was a direct targeting of myself as the m. pay for a spell fast in all of this the way i'm not a member of that a console and do not have a vote so there was

a political orchestration behind this and i think that those who worked up the year and tension which existed around this issue which is a mode of i think of the bar some of the responsibility for the consequences of that we have tried to behave in a way that is responsible mature around what is it difficult to shoot but we have a contested space in northern ireland we have to find ways of living together of expressing our identity in ways that are not confrontational but are actually inclusive and welcoming. for the alliances are very laudable but the big question is how is that done i mean elsewhere in britain the flags only flown on special days anyway isn't it could you very briefly describe to our viewers why this issue was so divisive in belfast. well ultimately if you look at the conflict in northern ireland over recent years it fundamentally exists around to get sure whether people's identity as arash or british and therefore expressions of british and americans are hugely contentious they're only one example of the situation that

it's contentious but it's a good example because if you are living in belfast under the good friday agreement and you are again you missed your place within living in a secure on a democratic basis if you're irish you have a right to that identity and that's protected in the good friday agreement but we have not yet reached the point clearly where we can find the kind of accommodation where we sit down together and negotiate how we express our identity and ways that are actually able to live is to live together and build a shared future and there is a fault line in northern ireland society of sectarianism and deep seated hatred which means that much of the building that we do for the future much of the progress which we have made which has been amazing is undermined when something like this comes along with the very core finding missions of what we're building so we have a society responsibility in the resonate for political leadership to try to come together and find good ways to deal with these issues rather than play a part of party politics with more of a hugely sensitive on the mood of the ships going service which return to not only

long and painful belfast east. getting armed to the teeth this controversial day being set aside on the calendar in the united states a right wing group of americans is organize a special day to call on the owners of weapons to buy them and fire them you know a lot about online tonight from a check it out r.t. dot com is the place to play also the mystery of the missing million dollar meting sledgehammer wielding thief or proudly snatched this twenty five years ago but behold it turned up the mystery of the missing the t.'s on ravelled on our website . and opposition activist in kuwait spring thrown behind bars for defaming the

country's ruler on twitter not help explain why the authorities have gone that far than let's talk to author and journalist in the times he's joining us from. morning to you the court acknowledged these tweets didn't actually mention the amir explicitly but they said they were quote clearly meant to insult him i was a two year sentence proportionate to that do you think of course anything interview with a nine hundred forty four characters whatever it is is so dangerous to kuwait you know this is a very serious issue and i know you've been covering it kevin but two tweets as in today's two year sentences and well it was only the other day that the u.s. ministry the secretary of state defense was in kuwait lauding is thirteen thousand troops in kuwait for some time invasion against iran. i can tell you here in britain for instance where everyone tries and sucks up to the suburbs family regardless of whether they imprison people. and russia.

before tweeting. anything against these rules as you say i should it's not the first time in kuwait an activist being targeted them for tweets against the rulers do you think it's high time now that human rights groups weighed in well the human rights groups themselves are in a sense a different subject because some of them are being knobbled by u.s. authorities but in fairness than been some human rights groups that have campaigned for the horrible human rights situation suffered by the elements the we do people under a thousand of those stateless in kuwait and anyone really trying to look for greater freedoms in kuwait and sort of forgotten country in terms of the arab spring and in fact kuwait is hosting at the end of this month a whole conference about syria and about humanitarian help for syria so it has

a lot to say about humanitarian things in syria believe imprisons people that tweet anything against them even though it is one of the most democratic places in the persian gulf arab countries where there are striking similarities out there with kuwait in bahrain in terms of how protesters are dealt with both countries have been off the media radar though compared to other arab nations which enjoy those uprisings why is that you think. it's obvious that the united states and nato countries desire to keep their thousands of troops in kuwait and in fact when i was just say that the summer family are probably better than they could be having them they could be even worse than they are and as we've seen of course there been demonstrations in bahrain and of course saudi arabia where i'm not being covered on any corporate media it's very difficult to cover the brutal suppression of human rights in these nato and u.s. backed dictatorships there is no way that countries like the one i'm speaking to you from let alone washington or the united states will countenance democracy in

these countries and let's hope that those demonstrators and people striving for democracy in kuwait and in bahrain will some of the strength to keep on supporting democracy let's not let's have a final thought i should about those people you're talking about in kuwait where is the situation going to go do you think any time soon in kuwait i think hopefully we know from i don't know ever since the french revolution when governments start to liberalize they start to fall so perhaps more hope in kuwait than in other countries in the persian gulf cooperation council the government however in the past twenty four hours or so again decreed that there curbs on democratic processes in kuwait will remain and that will help all pro royal family pro-government pro also other family candidates in their any type of democratic elections which kuwait

in france does have compared to the brutal suppression and murder and killing that goes on in bahrain tonight i should turn to journalist and author live on line from london thank you. changing direction is search of a better life in a few minutes on the program we report from venezuela which is the killing more appealing to people fail to fight economic and social harm the more traditional. but next a kurdish militant raid on a turkish border post has left thirteen people dead the soldiers eventually managed to force back their attackers that is the government and one insurgent group reportedly reached a tentative deal on disarmament which make up a conflict that's dragged on for three decades those ridiculous the reports next turkey's meddling in syria my only embolden militants back at home turkey's prime minister may have shot himself in the foot by openly supporting the syrian opposition the country's leader may have overlooked the fact syria's political

mayhem may have on turkey especially in the border areas largely populated by kurds some observers believe any two or more oil in the region between un karate damascus will have a devastating effect on to guns country keeler's got turkey now involved virtually in a war it's used as a base by the syrian rebels and now that to the kurds or march of this was perfectly predictable but the dangers here argued early guns reasoning behind his support for the rebels can stem from lessons of the recent past turkey. wants to. make. it within the syrian opposition because they've made the same mistake in iraq was that the kurdistan region which is. now. part of your game right.